


i thought i lost you to the truth

by all_their_intricacies



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, just some fluff for these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-21 20:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11365281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_their_intricacies/pseuds/all_their_intricacies
Summary: pretending to be boyfriends





	i thought i lost you to the truth

The evening sky is so glorious, magnifying even further by the decoration lights hanging all around the garden of the penthouse. Jared sits at the bar, sipping his drinks and observing the party goers, talking and laughing among each other.

He sits there with his back against the bar behind him, eyes scanning the vast space of the garden, not focusing anywhere for too long. A small smile appears on his face as he spots Richard, Gilfoyle and Dinesh in the crowd. They’re bundling up at one of the benches along with some other people. Tech guys, Jared thinks.

Richard is cheerfully describing something with both his words and his hands, and the group laughs; Dinesh sits besides him and Gilfoyle perches against the armrest, both are equally immersed in the conversation. Jared watches them for a moment, eyes lingering on their resident satanist, and for a short second, Jared wishes the man would turn and look at him.

Jared shakes his head, clearing it of all that wishful thinking regarding to Gilfoyle and reminds himself that it would never be.

He turns his eyes away from them, once again scanning the large garden. He sees Erlich sits not far away, laugh along with a pretty girl. The smile returns back on his face.

Everybody seems to have a good time.

Jared shifts his body, not entirely turns to the bar, not facing the crowd either. He sits there, head leans back to look up at the endless canvas of the sky. He sends the stars up above a small wish, not wanting to be on his own anymore, and smiles when they’re twinkling back at him.

“Hey, there,” a voice speaks up, startles Jared out of his reverie. Jared turns his head down and faces with a blond man, whose eyebrow is raising in amusement.

“Yes?”

“May I sit here?” the man says, pointing at the seat right beside Jared. Jared looks around the bar, there are many empty seats, but since he doesn’t want to seem impolite, Jared nods.

The man sits down, motioning for the bartender and ordering his drink. Jared turns around to completely face the bar, a little glad that there’s someone to talk to now. Maybe the stars did hear him.

“I’m Steven,” the stranger introduces, offering Jared a hand. Jared is eager to take it, giving Steven a light shake before letting go.

“I’m Jared. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Jared,” Steven replies, a bright smile shines on his face, making his blue eyes shine bright.

The two of them talk, Jared is happy to find that Steven is an intelligent man, keeping up with each conversation that Jared starts. A sense of dread fills the pit of Jared’s stomach everytime he catches Steven looks at his lips when he talks. It’s not creepy or anything, Jared just isn’t interested, and he hates rejecting people. He’s never been good at it.

“Jared,” Steven says after a while, that hint of flirtation now comes in full force. “Would you like to take this conversation somewhere else?” Jared stares at the man, feeling so disappointed because he was having such a great time just talking to Steven.

Jared looks down, feeling guilty about having to say no to the man before it’s replaced with dread as he feels a hand settles on his knee. His whole body tenses, his mind goes on full alert mode as he looks down as Steven’s hand.

“Uh, I think I should go, my friends are probably waiting for me,” Jared says quickly, glancing over at the guys, who doesn’t seem to pay any mind to Jared.

Steven is looking over there as well, humming disapprovingly as he looks through Jared’s lie. “Your friends are having fun, I don’t think they’re expecting you. You don’t want to go over and ruining their fun, _do you?_ ” The hand on his knee moves up a little higher.

Jared swallows, trying to get that big lump of his throat down but it just refuses to leave. Steven is looking at him now, leaning in just a bit that Jared can smell the alcohol on his breath as he talks. Jared moves his body, trying to put as much space between them as possible without seeming impolite.

He shifts his eyes to his friends again, and this time, a spark of relieve flies through him as he sees Gilfoyle staring back, a small frown lays between his eyebrows. Jared sends a small prayer to whatever God above that one of the guys would come over and get him out of here.

That to be said, this isn’t the first time Jared has had to deal with guys--people, you’d be surprised with how forceful women could be sometimes--like Steven. However, this is the first time he doesn’t have to do it alone, and the small thought makes his heart calm down a bit.

The hand on his thigh has somehow taken his lack of response as an invitation to drift up even higher on his thigh, almost too close to his crotch.

He looks over at Steven, cringing on the inside as he sees the coy smile on the man’s face. “Come on now, _Jared,_ ” the man all but purrs, probably intending to entice Jared, but it only makes his stomach churn. “Maybe we can--”

Steven doesn’t have the chance to finish his sentence as a voice speaks up from their right, loud enough to turn a few heads nearby. “OJ, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.” It’s Gilfoyle. Jared sends a small thanks up to the Gods.

He turns his head to the voice, smiling gratefully as Gilfoyle sidles up besides him. Gilfoyle still has that calming present as always, uninterested and nonchalant, but to Jared, it’s the best thing in the world right now.

The bearded man briefly glances at the hand on Jared’s thigh before moving in closer, pressing his body to Jared’s side. “Who’s your friend here, _babe?_ ” Gilfoyle asks, and Jared has to reward himself for not whipping his head around to meet Gilfoyle’s eyes just out of pure surprise. _What in the world?_

But Jared quickly understands his intention as Steven takes his hand back from its place, and Jared can feel his entire body relax. He might be leaning into Gilfoyle’s body from besides him, almost thriving in the heat radiating from his body, but Jared can blame it on how close they’re being.

“I’m Steven, and who might you be?” Steven asks, voice underlying with irritation. He doesn’t offer a hand like he did with Jared. Gilfoyle doesn’t seem to care.

The satanist takes a sip of his drink, slowly, all while observing Steven under his intense gaze. Then Jared feels a hand gently sneak its way across the small of his back before settling on his hip. He tenses for a moment before relaxing again when he realizes it’s Gilfoyle’s hand, not Steven’s, and that seems to encourage the bearded man to press in closer. A small smile takes its place at the corner of Jared’s lips at how safe he feels in Gilfoyle’s arm.

“I’m Gilfoyle, Jared’s boyfriend,” Gilfoyle says after a moment, voice even as if he’s stating a fact, giving Jared’s hip a small squeeze.

Jared shifts his eyes over to Gilfoyle to see the man’s staring straight at Steven. There’s a spark of danger under those beautiful brown eyes and it seems to be all directed at Steven.

He’s never seen Gilfoyle like this before, and it’s riveting to be the only one to witness this, to know that Gilfoyle’s this worked up because someone else was being rude to Jared. It’s good to know that he cares.

The thought makes the region of Jared’s heart fill with so much affection that it feels like it might burst.

Steven seems to have lost all his interest in Jared whatsoever. He bids them a quick goodbye and makes his exit. Jared no longer gives any thought about him. Instead, he’s allowing himself to savour the warmth besides him before he has to let it go.

They don’t say anything for a long moment. The silence drapes over them, however, is a comfortable one. Neither of them is making an effort to move away from the other, with Jared’s still a bit high on the rare affection from Gilfoyle, and Gilfoyle is… Jared dares another glances at the man, but the expression on his face is unreadable. Gilfoyle is always good at concealing his emotions, and it seems like this time is no different.

When Gilfoyle is finally done with his beer, he reaches over Jared’s front and puts the bottle on the bar. The hand on Jared’s hip moves away as Gilfoyle settles himself on the seat previously taken by Steven. Jared doesn’t let the disappointment shows on his face as his side already feels cold again.

Jared looks down at his laps, allowing himself a moment to miss their contact, before speaking up. “Um, thanks, Gilfoyle. That was very nice of you.” He can feel Gilfoyle’s eyes on him, but unlike before, he can’t feel the anger in his gaze. He dares to look up, meeting those eyes, and sees something that akin to fondness, but he doesn’t let himself hope. Hoping only leads to disappointment, he reminds himself.

Gilfoyle hums thoughtfully, turning his head and looking out the city with a distant look on his face. “You’re welcome, Jared,” he says after a moment, waving for the bartender to get him another beer.

Jared nods, just to have something to do. “You can get back to the guys now,” he suggests, giving the shorter man a small, grateful smile. “I can take care of myself from now on.”

Gilfoyle takes a sip of his beer before shrugging, turning back around to face Jared. “Nah,” he says, a hint of interest in his voice. “Talking to them was boring, I was looking for an excuse to leave. You gave me one so I guess I should thank you too.”

Jared ducks his head, shy, can’t keep the smile breaking on his face. “Well, I’m glad I could help,” he says, feeling genuinely happy for the first time since they’ve arrived at the part. “What are you going to do now?”

Gilfoyle considers for a moment. “I could go around and mingle like the rest of the sheep here,” he gestures to the people around them, “or I could stay with you and make sure creeps like fucking _Steven_ back there don’t bother you again.”

Jared is taken aback for a second, ‘cause Gilfoyle is offering to spend more time with him, something the man has never tried to do before. Jare’s heart feels warm again but he pays no attention to it. “You don’t have to do that, Gilfoyle. Like I said, I can take care of myself.”

Gilfoyle snorts. “Yeah, right. I can see how well you were taking care of yourself against Major Creep back then,” Gilfoyle says, unimpressed. “It’s okay, Jared. It’s either pretending to be your boyfriend for the rest of the night to keep the creeps at bay, or back to mindlessly listening to a bunch of nerds talk. I choose to be with you.” And there is a note of _something_ in his voice that Jared cannot decipher, or rather, not dare to.

‘I choose to be with you’, that is a sentence Jared can swear he has never heard directed at him, and the heat in his chest spikes up a little. He smiles tentatively at Gilfoyle, and he swears he can feel the butterflies in his stomach flutter their wings as he sees a small, tiny smile lurking at the corner of Gilfoyle’s mouth. All Jared can do is smiling brighter.

A second after their moment passes, Gilfoyle reaches out and offers Jared his hand. “May I?” he asks, and there’s a tick of nervousness in his voice that Jared only recognizes by hearing it too much from Richard. “I mean, we have to be convincing, right?”

Jared stares at the hand in front of him before nodding, taking it in his. He carefully intertwines their fingers together and has to force himself not to stare at Gilfoyle staring at their hands. It’s mesmerising the way the man looks up close. Jared has never been more ready to drown himself in the color of someone’s eyes like he is right now.

“How many people do you think we can convince we’re in a relationship?” Gilfoyle asks after a while, when he finally takes his eyes off their joined hands. Now, his eyes are staring off into space again, unfocused, a small frown sets between his eyebrows like he's thinking hard about something.

Jared shrugs, even though Gilfoyle probably won’t see it. He’s too busy with studying the complexion of Gilfoyle’s face under the decorating lights of the yard to even think about the man’s question.

“We can make a game out of it,” Gilfoyle muses. “Like, the more people we can convince, the better.”

Gilfoyle is looking at him now, so Jared forces his eyes away from Gilfoyle’s face and takes a moment to think. There is no point to this game that Jared can see, but he doesn’t have to heart to voice his opinion against it.. Especially when he’s holding Gilfoyle’s hand in his. So instead, he says, “What’s the prize? A game has to have a prize, right?”

Gilfoyle hums in agreement, glancing at Jared before quickly going back to observing the people around them. “Right. What do you want as a prize?” he asks.

 _I want to kiss you,_ Jared doesn’t say, doesn’t allow himself to even think about because that is never going to happen. Jared is not going to set himself up for disappointment. So he just shrug. “What do _you_ want?” Jared challenges.

Gilfoyle turns to look at him, there’s a spark of amusement in his eyes then it flashes to something like longing, but Jared quickly counts it as wishful thinking on his part. Gilfoyle shrugs, taking another sip of his beer. “We can figure that out later,” he says, voice distant, almost disappointed. “Let’s just start the game, okay?”

“Okay,” Jared answers in a quiet voice, following when Gilfoyle pulls him out of his seat and into the chattering crowd.

Their first ‘target’--as Gilfoyle has deemed it--is a couple of ladies who approached them a few moment after Gilfoyle dragged him from the bar. Ellie, one of the girls, has expressed her interest in Gilfoyle despite the fact he’s holding hands with Jared.

A flash of jealousy burns through Jared’s mind, but he quickly puts it out because he has no place to be jealous. Gilfoyle doesn’t seem to be affected by all of Ellie’s flirting, which helps the fire in Jared’s chest just a tiny bit, but he doesn’t do anything about it either.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerve, Jared decides to put all of his unrequited feelings asides and tries to be nice with the girls, keeping up their conversation for both him and Gilfoyle.

A shudder runs down his spine when he feels hot breath on the side of his neck as Gilfoyle leans up to whisper in his ear. “We have to be convincing, remember?” he says, blowing hot breath all over the side of Jared’s face. It’s all Jared can do not to melt into puddle at his feet.

Gilfoyle has snuck a hand onto his hip again, settling on the same place it has been before, and pulls him in close. Jared once again lets himself relish in the warmth of the other man.

“Yeah, right,” Jared replies breathlessly, nodding his head. He leans into Gilfoyle’s touch and watches as Ellie seems to _finally_ realize what is going on and makes some vague excuse about finding someone before dragging her friend away.

“You almost lost there, Jared,” Gilfoyle says warningly, when the two ladies are out of earshot. There’s no bite in his voice, just plain displeasure. Jared ducks his head, feeling ashamed like he was just caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Sorry,” he says, trying not to move a lot so that Gilfoyle will somehow forget they’re standing close and stay there forever. “I’ll try better next time.”

Their next target is a lovely woman standing by his lonesome at one of the table near the railing overlook the city. Apparently, she’s been ‘giving Jared appreciating look’, as Gilfoyle has put it. Jared doesn’t ask why he knows that. He doesn’t care.

Gilfoyle is more active this time, keeping his arm around Jared’s body, hand resting on the small of Jared’s back like it belongs there. Jared doesn’t let his heart swell at the affection since Gilfoyle’s probably just trying to win ‘the game’.

They walk up to the woman and say hi. Gilfoyle even extends a hand for the stranger to shake--after putting his beer down the table, his other hand never leaving Jared’s body. The satanist introduces them as boyfriends right away, pulling Jared in even closer, and a smug look crosses his face as a sad one takes place on the woman’s--Carrie’s--face. Instead of thinking too much into it, Jared jolts that down as Gilfoyle being happy about winning.

They chat with Carrie for a while, as the woman proves herself to be fascinating. Even Gilfoyle seems to be into the conversation, once he’s sure Carrie’s interest longer lays in Jared.

Carrie bids them a goodbye when her phone rings, reminding her of an early meeting tomorrow. Jared waves as she leaves, Gilfoyle only tips his beer as goodbye. Carrie seems to be happy with this, eyes twinkling as she smiles at them before leaving through the door.

“She was nice,” Jared says, “I think we convince her real good, yeah?” He doesn’t try to hide the delightness in his voice.

“Yeah,” Gilfoyle says thoughtfully. “I think we should amp it up a bit.”

“What do you mean?”

Gilfoyle shrugs. “We should kiss,” he suggests, looking at Jared’s face. “You know, to be more convincing.”

Jared fights to keep his face neutral as his heart's thumping in his chest like he’s at a rock concert. “Ah,” Jared drawls, nodding at the thought. They _should_ kiss. It’s for the sake of winning the game. Right? “Alright. Do you want to do it now?”

Gilfoyle nods. “Now should be good.”

Jared presses a quick kiss on Gilfoyle’s lips. He doesn’t allow himself to stay for too long, to linger, to lose himself in the kiss because he’s afraid. He’s afraid Gilfoyle will know, will realize that he wants this. He’s afraid Gilfoyle will hate him, will be disgusted at him for having those kinds of thoughts about his friend.

He avoids Gilfoyle’s gaze, looking anywhere but him. He can feel the man’s eyes on him. “That wasn’t very convincing, Jared,” Gilfoyle says evenly, voice demanding for Jared to look at him. “You should try again.”

Jared looks, and there is that _longing_ in the man’s eyes yet again, but this time Jared doesn’t make himself ignore it. Maybe he’s not imagining it. Maybe it’s not wishful thinking. Maybe it’s real, and Gilfoyle wants this just as much as he does.

Maybe he can have this.

So he stands up straight, shaking hands reaching up to remove Gilfoyle’s glass and putting it on the table beside Gilfoyle’s beer. Taking a deep breath, he puts a gentle hand on Gilfoyle’s cheek and leans in.

It’s more of a press than a kiss since neither of them is moving their lips, just standing and frozen in time. For a moment, Jared thinks that maybe he’s wrong, that Gilfoyle is only doing this for the sake of winning and Jared is making a fool of himself for wanting it this much. All of his doubt evaporated as Gilfoyle moves, pulling Jared is by the arm around his waist, closer and closer until they were pressed close from chest to thigh.

Jared moves his hand to tangle in Gilfoyle’s dark hair, lips moving along with Gilfoyle’s. Every sound coming out of the shorter man’s mouth, a whimper, a moan, all sends a thrill down Jared’s spine. It makes his blood hums with desire as he ravishes Gilfoyle’s lips.

Gilfoyle answers with as much force. He swallows every small groan coming out of Jared’s lips, and Jared is more than happy to give them away.

Their kiss turns feverish, Jared’s own hand starts grasping at Gilfoyle’s hair, his shoulder, the line of his jaw. Gilfoyle’s beard tickles his face, sending a small giggle out of him and Gilfoyle’s swallows it up like it’s air and he’s drowning.

When they finally pull apart for air, there are distant murmurs from people around them and Jared’s chest is on fire but he cannot make himself care about either of those things. All of his attention is on the man in front of him.

Jared lets himself be enveloped in the warmth from Gilfoyle’s body, eyes scanning each and every part of the man’s face with his mouth hanging open. God, Gilfoyle looks so beautiful after being kissed. His eyes are glazing over, lips kiss-ruined and glimmering under the light. Jared look from the man’s lips then to his eyes, and the affection behind those brown, brown eyes wakes the butterflies in Jared’s stomach, their wings flutter and ready to take off.

He ducks his head to presses a chaste kiss to Gilfoyle’s lips, then moves to his chin, his nose, and his forehead, sprinkling kisses all over his face. Gilfoyle just stands there and lets him.

When he’s satisfied, Jared pulls back just enough so he can look at Gilfoyle’s eyes, then slowly feeling himself soaking in the warmth of them. He wraps both arm around Gilfoyle’s neck and presses their foreheads together, breathing in the same air the man breathes out. His entire body is humming with bliss and it’s the best thing in the world.

“I don’t want to pretend anymore,” Gilfoyle says all of a sudden, and when Jared jerks back, feeling a prickling of tears in his eyes at the statement, Gilfoyle takes a hold of his hand and pulls him back in. “You didn’t let me finish,” Gilfoyle chides, squeezing his hand. Jared feels himself relax just a little bit, though still ready to run away at the worst. “I want to do it for real.” Gilfoyle’s voice is soft and full of fondness, and the butterflies in Jared’s stomach soar.

“I want to do it for real too,” Jared replies, smiling as Gilfoyle press a small kiss to the corner of his mouth. So this is what pure happiness must feel like.

“Good,” Gilfoyle says, gaze shifting over to the left before landing back into Jared’s eyes. “Now kiss me again, that woman over there is giving you eyes and I don’t like it. You’re mine now.”

Jared is all too happy to oblige. After all, he still has a game to win.

**Author's Note:**

> so who do you think will win the game?


End file.
